Lima

More than 400 years ago, the Spanish conqueror ("conquistador") Francisco Pizarro named Lima the City of the Kings ("Ciudad de los Reyes"). Nowadays, that same city, which rose from the lands of the native chief Taulischusco, is a metropolis of over 7 million people who proudly preserve the colonial convents and mansions which are symbols of their ancient and noble traditions.

Lima, capital of Peru, founded on January 18, 1535, is a modern city which, while constantly expanding, has also managed to maintain the elegance of its Historic Center . Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Center, due to the large number of artistic monuments found there, Historic Lima is an enchanting haven of a period long gone.

Lima's Cathedral, which City Fathers began building on the very day of the city's foundation; the Church and Convent of San Francisco , due to its harmony of volume and color, considered by some as the greatest architectural complex of its kind in Latin America, and Santo Domingo, with its beautiful main cloister, are but a few of the invaluable treasures which provide evidence of Lima's deep religious faith.

Similarly, mansions such as the House of Aliaga ("Casa Aliaga"), built upon the private temple of the chief Taulichusco; the House of Goyeneche or Rada ("Casa Goyeneche or Rada"), with its obvious French influences; and the Torre Tagle Palace ("Palacio de Torre Tagle"), the most beautiful of Lima's early 18th century mansions, all symbolize the splendor and ostentation of the Viceregal era.

Built on the banks of the River Rimac, and caressed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the city of Lima also preserves traces of its pre-Hispanic period; most notably the great sanctuary of Pachacamac, where a god of the same name was worshipped, and the 'huaca' Pucllana, in the district of Miraflores, an important administrative center of the Lima culture (400 AC).

Lima's name comes from the 'aymara' word lima-limac or limac-huayta, the name of a yellow flower; or from the quechua rimac meaning 'speaker'. Because of these links with the pre-Hispanic past, its colonial past and the strong religious faith it gave it; its modern outlook and its festive nature, which bathes its eternally gray sky in color, Lima, will always be the City of the Kings.

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